History and background

Hartlip Village Pond

formerly

The Village Wheelwash

In times past the Village Pond was the Old Wheelwash providing for the needs of carts and carriages entering the old Village of Hartlip from the south. The entrance to the wheelwash is easily discernible today if you stand a little south of the village pond, with your back facing south and look northward up The Street.

Hartlip Village Pond is situated beside The Street and opposite the 200 year old Methodist Chapel. It is now separated from the road by a brick wall with a drop of several feet to pond level. Prior to the wall a picket fence separated the pond from the road.

The Village Pond is located in Hartlip’s Conservation Area and close to a number of Hartlip’s Listed Buildings and other Heritage Assets. The Pond itself and its wall are considered to be a heritage asset. To the south of the pond is Mount Lane, a designated ‘rural lane’ with particular characteristics which are protected. To the east of The Street is land which is considered to special landscape value and is considered worthy of protection. The view of this land from The Street should therefore be unhindered and protected.

Upon entering the ancient Village of Hartlip from the south, the Village Pond, neighbouring buildings including heritage assets and the open countryside form the first view of the old Village of Hartlip and Hartlip’s Conservation Area. This area is therefore of immense importance in its contribution to the landscape and built environment which sets the impression of Hartlip.

The Village Pond/Old Wheelwash is nominated as a Local Green Space.

Today, the pond is a crucial soakaway and should not allow the adjacent road (The Street) to become flooded. The wall of the pond contains a drain hole to facilitate water run-off from The Street into the pond.

KCC Highways require to have the right to allow surplus water from the road to drain into the pond.

In December 1995 Kent Trust for Nature Conservation stated in a report on the pond:

• ‘The function of the pond in acting as a reservoir for excess road surface rainwater is clearly important to avoid road flooding and maintaining this function is a priority for the village’.
• ‘In summary, we believe that this pond must remain fulfilling its road drainage function. It will always be very variable in level and the water is always likely to be fairly poor in quality’.
• ‘We believe that efforts will be best spent concentrating on making this pond more attractive, not as a water feature, but by growing attractive marginal plants around it’.

Fauna observed in and around the Village Pond over the years have included:

• Water Fleas
• Brown Hawker dragon flies
• Bladder snails
• Frogs
• Moorhens made their home here for a number of years
• Mallards nested and produced young
• Many species of birds’ bathe, drink and feed in the pond and its surrounds.

Ownership of the Village Pond area is divided:

• The wall, front part of pond and the green triangle of land to the south of the pond and adjacent to The Street is parish land. The green triangle is where Hartlip’s Platinum Jubilee inscribed bench is situated.
• The ‘third’ of the pond to the north east belongs to Holloways Orchard
• The ‘third’ of the pond to the south east belongs to Copper Beeches